Wearable Art

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Month: November 2016

I have knit dog sweaters for all of my dogs, and have been thinking of making them to sell for a long time. I also have a lot of yarn that I have spun over the years from my friend Cathe’s Leicester Longwool sheep, which are a critically rare breed.

Leicester Longwool Lamb

The wool has a lovely luster and is so wonderful to spin. It is a bit coarse, so it doesn’t work well for next-to-skin items like hats and scarves. But! Dogs don’t find it itchy at all. So, I thought this would be a great, hard-wearing, wonderful yarn for dog coats.

I also wanted to spin and knit the accent yarn with dog hair, preferably a big dog, to make tiny dogs feel big and brave! Cathe has the perfect dog who guards her sheep, Emma.

Emma

Emma is a gentle giant of a dog, a Great Pyrenees and Anatolian dog who was rescued and now happily guards the sheep at Seven Sisters Farm.

So, I spun a bit of Emma dog hair, and started the design process. I have a wonderful Toy Manchester Terrier named Buddy. He is such a sweet dog, and they are very thin and long, so a standard dog sweater didn’t fit very well.

I started designing, measuring, and trying the work in progress sweaters on Buddy. He didn’t really like being measured, but sure did like trying on the sweaters! After 5 designs with little adjustments here and there, I am now making the sweaters for small dogs.

My sweaters standard measurements are: 10″ around the neck, 17″ around the rib cage, and 12-15″ along the back. I find that most commercial dog sweaters are somewhat short on the back, so I make mine longer. I also adjust the length of the underside of the sweater for male or female dogs. I sure don’t want my male dog peeing on his coat, and neither do you!

So, that is the story. You can send me a message, talk to me about measurements, and put in an order. At this time, I will only be making small sweaters. The price is $55. These do take some time to make, but I will do my best to send them quickly.